October 2018

Biotech company wants to start human reproduction in space

The Dutch company SpaceLife Origin has announced very daring plans. The first extraterrestrial human will be born within 6 years. A breakthrough and quite controversial experiment will be preceded by appropriate research and preparation.

 

SpaceLife Origin wants to initiate the existence of the first generation of cosmic humans. The founder of the company, Kees Mulder, claims that if we are to become an interplanetary species, we must learn to reproduce in space. But is it possible?

 

As part of the "Missions Ark" phase, which will start in 2020, SpaceLife Origin will send the satellite into orbit with thousands of special containers protected against space radiation. Scientists will place male and female reproductive cells in them to take care of the future of the human species in the event of a global catastrophe.

Źródło: SpaceLife Origin

In 2021, the next phase of the experiment called "Missions Lotus" will begin. SpaceLife Origin will deliver a special incubator into orbit. It will simulate the conditions on Earth. The sperm and egg cells contained in them will begin to form embryos. In other words, there will be fertilization in space, and after a few days in orbit, the incubator will return to Earth. Specialists will use them to make the first human being born on the planet, who was conceived in space.

 

In 2024, the third, final stage called "Missions Cradle" will take place. SpaceLife Origin will choose one woman who will fly into orbit along with the world-renowned group of doctors. During the long hours of surgery, the woman will give birth to the first cosmic child.

According to many scientists, long-term space missions will have a negative impact on human health. It is difficult to say now whether a man born in space will be healthy in the long run. However, if we are to become an interplanetary species, then experiments of this type must be carried out sooner or later. Today we are born on Earth, tomorrow we will be born in orbit, and in the future perhaps even on other planets.

 


We have only 50% chance of surviving the 21st century

Our civilization is growing at a dizzying pace, but at the same time there are more and more threats. Artificial intelligence, nuclear war, global pandemics, bioterrorism, abuse of Earth's natural resources - these are just some of them. Taking all this into account, a well-known British cosmologist has estimated that human civilization has a rather small chance of surviving this century.

 

In the book "Our Final Hour", published in 2003, Martin Rees stated that humanity has only a 50% chance of surviving the 21st century. Many years have passed since then, but Rees has just released a new book entitled "On the Future: Prospects for Humanity", in which he wrote that all decisions that will be taken now and in the next few decades can decide about life on Earth.

 

Martin Rees is concerned about technological development. Today, only a few people can do huge damage on a global scale. This can be a fatal hacker attack or use of deadly biological weapons that can trigger a global pandemic. Another threat is genetic engineering, which allows to modify the genes of any organisms. Just as Stephen Hawking warned, a handful of people can start to edit their genes, making them stronger, healthier and more intelligent, which, among other things, will deepen social inequalities.

In the latest interview for the Vox portal, the British astronomer and cosmologist Martin Rees said he upheld his predictions from 2003, but today he is even more concerned about the changes. Thanks to new technologies, humanity has received even more powerful tools, which with even greater ease can harm itself, which is why we are one step closer to a global catastrophe.

 

Astronomer Martin Rees believes that the greatest threats to our civilization come from ourselves, not from space. More than the fall of an asteroid, he fears human stupidity, greed and mistakes. Threats from people are getting bigger, and many of them can not be eliminated.

 

The British cosmologist also pointed out that around one billion people live today in extreme poverty, while only a few thousand of the richest people in the world have unimaginable wealth. These differences are getting deeper and nobody is doing anything about it. According to Martin Rees, this issue shows that humanity has made very little moral progress since the Middle Ages.

 


Stephen Hawking feared rise of superhumans that could destroy humanity

Stephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018. In one of his essays, the brilliant astrophysicist described his fears about the future of humanity. According to Hawking, genetic engineering techniques could create a superhuman race.

 

The latest prediction of the famous astrophysicist concerns the richest people in the world who are interested in the possibilities offered by genetic engineering. Stephen Hawking believed that the rich would soon modify their genes, as well as the genes of their children, to increase their intelligence, memory, disease resistance or even extend the life expectancy.

Engineering techniques will of course be inaccessible to the average person, but the richest will certainly take this opportunity, even if the law prohibits modifying human genes. As a consequence, according to Hawking, there will be a superhumans race that will be better than "ordinary" people in every respect and will have much more possibilities. The astrophysicist also thought that average people would find themselves in a very difficult situation because they would not be able to compete with superhumans.

Stephen Hawking's fears are very current and real. We already have at our disposal the tools that modify genes, e.g. the CRISPR/Cas9 editor. However, cyborgization is also a great threat. In 2016, Professor Yuval Noah Harari of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said that the richest people in the world will become cyborgs and live forever, while poorer people would simply be condemned to death and oblivion.

 


Creepy skull-shaped asteroid is coming!

The „Halloween Asteroid” 2015 TB145 is coming back. This skull-shaped space rock is set to pass by Earth on November 11.

 

Three years ago, „Halloween Asteroid”, which is between 625 and 700 metres wide, buzzed by Earth just outside the Moon's orbit, at 486,000 kilometres (302,000 miles). Now, 2015 TB145 will pay us a second visit.

Skull-shaped asteroid will fly by Earth at a relatively long distance - around 105 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. Astronomers want to take this opportunity to get a better look at it. Another opportunity for observation will only happen in 2088.

 


Astronomers are looking for aliens in Andromeda

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara are looking for signs of intelligent life in the Andromeda galaxy. They are looking for signals that may indicate the presence of technologically advanced civilization.

 

Philip Lubin and his team assume that somewhere in space there is a civilization that is at the same or even higher level of development than us and manifests its presence with the help of strong flashes of laser light. The detection of these flashes became the goal of the Trillion Planet Survey project.

The astronomers team uses telescopes that observe Andromeda. Ultimately, the researchers want to get one photo of the galaxy, then compare it to the control photo to eliminate all known light sources. According to UC Santa Barbara:

"A set of photos taken by the telescopes, each of which takes a 1/30th slice of Andromeda, will be knit together to create a single image. That one photograph will then be compared to a more pristine image in which there are no known transient signals — interfering signals from, say, satellites or spacecraft — in addition to the optical signals emanating from the stellar systems themselves. The survey photo would be expected to have the same signal values as the pristine "control" photo, leading to a difference of zero. But a difference greater than zero could indicate a transient signal source".

The Andromeda galaxy is about 2.5 million light years from the Milky Way. This means that if astronomers detect a signal that theoretically will come from some alien civilization, it should be borne in mind that it was broadcast about 2.5 million years ago. So we can say that scientists are looking for traces of extraterrestrial civilizations that have long been absent. However, Trillion Planet Survey also focuses on research of other galaxies.